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Tom Merriman and the â€œI-Teamâ€?, apparently Clevelandâ€™s lame version of the A-Team, did a report on a local poet for Fox 8 News. Unsurprisingly the segment did not go well. They interviewed, well ambushed then later interviewed, Brian Yax, a local poet who goes by the name â€œUncle Bad Touchâ€?. Yax wrote poetry on raping and murdering women as well as children which were posted on his Myspace profile, which have been removed since the airing of the interview.
Apparently the point of the interview was to make Yax look bad for writing this poetry and apologize for doing so. Quiet frankly the whole thing was ridiculous. So what if he writes offensive poetry? Heâ€™s 22 years old; of course heâ€™s going to do offensive things.
In case you didnâ€™t notice the hair and the clothes, he wants attention, which is exactly what this dumb story gave him. Iâ€™m sure all of his friends told him how cool he was for getting on the news. At the end of the segment they talked about free speech and the stupid anchors asked what can be done about offensive speech like this. Obviously they are too stupid to realize that free speech was designed to protect offensive speech.
Too many people say, â€œWell Iâ€™m all for free speech, butâ€¦â€?Â There is no "but," people, either you are for free speech or you arenâ€™t. The minute you start censoring things because you donâ€™t like or agree with them then free speech goes out the window.
I didnâ€™t see anybody complain that the news is offensive. Quite frankly I was offended when Tom Merriman brought out the woman whose daughter was raped and murdered to â€œsurpriseâ€? Yax and make him feel guilty. Way to use some one elseâ€™s pain and suffering to boost your ratings Tom. Tom criticized Yax for saying that he didnâ€™t care that her daughter was murdered. Tom Merriman doesnâ€™t really care either, but he sure pretended to be concerned during the interview. Iâ€™m sure a few hours later he totally forgot about her and her daughter and went onto the next person to exploit for ratings.
Yax is a douche and his poetry is offensive and poorly written, but because of the First Amendment he has the right to express himself in anyway he wants as long as he doesnâ€™t harm anyone else. The news puts images of murder, rape and violence on every night for entertainment and no one calls them out on it, so it is hypocritical for them to pick on one individual. Freedom of speech is an integral part of our country and if you donâ€™t like it then you can exercise your freedom of speech and shut up.